GOODBYE TO OUR GIVING TREE

Here is a photo of our house, taken two years ago when our wonderful tree was still whole and unassaulted. It blocked the sun all summer and cooled our living room and porch. In the winter, all the leaves dropped away letting the sun stream in through the bay window, making everything cozy. The tree kept the rain off of the wheelchair ramp, so I could always make it to the car dry. It kept the front steps a shady place to sit with the grandkids and blow bubbles.
But this spring, the forces lined up against the tree. First was a series of severe wind storms.

They took most of the limbs off of the east side of the tree. A couple of months later, the power company came and cut out the entire west side of the tree. Evidently the limbs grew somewhat in the vicinity of the power lines - not anywhere actually close enough to touch, or fall on, or grow over to, but perhaps they just thought it would be easier to trim the front tree, rather than the back tree, that actually has power and phone lines running all through it!

So this is what was left of our beloved tree. It's hard to tell without the leaves, but the tree goes straight up in the air, and out over the street. It no longer shades the house or the porch. And if it doesn't do its good jobs anymore, that just leaves its bad job - it has roots growing through the sewer pipes. We've ignored it till now, the time has come. It has to go.

I wish I had video of Robert and Rob taking this tree down. The limb that almost came through the window. The limbs that hit and/or almost hit the ladder the guys were standing on while using the chain saw. In this photo, Rob runs in and pushes the trunk over, as it starts to fall backward onto Robert. Some law of physics was missed in their calculations.

Dan arrived just after the trunk came down and helped with all of the cutting up, and hauling back, and sweeping up, and raking and all of the mess that occurs when taking down a tree this large.

So, here's our little house now. It looks so small and forlourn. We need to get the new trees planted soon. And Ill be happier in the spring when all the colorful bulbs bloom. I wonder how many years it will take before we have shade again?

DAY TRIP! SAN DIEGO!

Dia de los Muertos

The Day of the Dead is fast approaching and Old Town in San Diego is replete with everything you could want to celebrate it. Or be creeped out by it.

The day was exceptionally windy and the ocean was wild. This is Wind and Sea Beach and the elements were living up to their name today. The waves were high and crashing, there were palm tree fronds all over the streets and not nearly as many seals as usual out on the rocks.

Grandma and the Mariachis. 'Nuff said.

La Plaza de Reyes restaurant, where we had the best lunch. Really. The moist, tasty tamales, fresh soft corn tortillas, delicious chili verde...I can't go on or we'll have to make another trip back to San Diego!

Here we are on our porch, with a beautiful clear day behind us!

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

Today started out with another gorgeous, sunny day. It was going to be about 80' - the hottest all week, so we decided to spend it at the beach and the pool. That is, after sleeping in till after 9:30 because we played cards so late last night.

Robert wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home. I'm glad he feels better tonight.

We went to Crystal Cove State Park - just across the street from our complex. It's the beach where the Chlarson's little beach house was (in fact we were sitting almost right in front of it) and is also where they filmed Beaches. That house is on the far right of this photo.

I only waded in the ocean up to my knees, but my parents dove right in. That's them barreling through a wave, Mom on the left and Dad on the right.

After lunch, we went back to the resort and to the Quiet Pool. Something more my speed. I went in and swam two lengths and then was pleasantly cool to sit in the shade and read my book the rest of the afternoon.

This is a Marriott resort and is beautiful. And so well-constructed. We have two little boys staying in the room over us and can't even hear them - until they go outside and run around.

Another beautiful sunset! Every night is different from the one before. But I have to go - it's dinner time!

CALIFORNIA, HERE I COME!

Well, here we are at the ultra-luxurious Newport Coast Villas. This is the view from our patio, taken as we arrived at sunset last night. I'll be posting photos as the week goes on, if I can find time in my planned schedule of laying by the pool, laying on the beach, laying on the chaise... well, you get the idea.

OCTOBER? SERIOUSLY?

I know this year has zipped past quickly, but I can't think of a single thing that I did in September, went to in September, anything that made it seem like September actually happened. It was August and tomorrow is October. I blame it all on not having a computer. My calendar is on the computer so I never knew what day it was. I only checked email and facebook every 3-6 days so I was always behind. And instead of going to doctors several times a week, I think I only had two appointments in all of September. So nothing to keep track of.

But, now my computer's back - I can surf and calendar and pay bills and read mail and spend great amounts of time doing things like making photo collages like the one above - wasn't I adorable?

MY SUMMER WITH THE GRANDKIDS

Don't let the fact that I am blogging from my hospital bed make you think that this has not been a summer of tremendous fun! I had planned to be surrounded by one grandchild, and instead have been blessed with many more. Zoe came out for her seven week stay and we had a blast. I'm so grateful that 1) Allison and Chris let her stay that long; 2) that Zoe was happy and not homesick for seven weeks; and 3) that Rob and Erin were here to take over for the weeks when I was sick, or Zoe would have spent a lot of time on grandma's bed. This picture is how I will most remember this summer - watching the kids swinging in the backyard. I think that they had a truly idyllic kid experience - in and out of the shady backyard all day, bare feet, always someone to play with, swings, slides, make believe, sprinklers to run in, hide and seek in the plum trees, bubbles, kids to visit with over the fence, popsicles. Of course, I'm leaving out all the squabbles, but that's part of it, too.

The first thing we did this summer was go to Snowbird. Everyone came to spend our swan song there - we have since sold our timeshare - and it was becoming a tight squeeze for our growing family. It was fun to get the large room, the Pinnacle, with the kitchen bar and washer/dryer. We made good use of both. The kids wanted to swim. And swim. And later ...swim. Never mind that it was foggy and snowing outside. That's all they wanted to do.

In between swimming, we bribed them with no end of crafts - we painted suncatchers, made wooden models, colored pictures, made animal magnets, alligator sticker scenes and log cabin with moose, racoons, and other wildlife alongside. We also had a birthday party for Holly, played games, watched movies, ate great food. And the men played games after the kids went to sleep.

We also had a slumber party at our house. Erin was the selfless soul who camped out with the kids. I don't think anyone got any sleep. Morgan is almost old enough to stay with the group - and then things will get lively - her energy output alone equals the rest of the group together!

Ethan manged to climb up in the tree and that was it for Zoe - she had to do it. She put on her hated long jeans and her (gasp) sneakers and tried over and over and finally made it into the tree. It remained a big deal for a couple of weeks - she'd climb up and read a book in the branches. But eventually it just wasn't worth the long pnats and the shoes.

Robert, Zoe and I went to the Quirrh Temple Open House. We went early on a Thursday morning and had virtually the entire temple to ourselves. It was beautiful and very peaceful - a great way to see a temple.

It was fun to watch Rob and Erin do FHE each week. Zoe was so enthralled with it that if something happened to push it to Tuesday...,well, there had better be a darn good reason for it. Holly and Sam have been taught so well by their parents that Holly has an amazing knowledge of the scripture stories. Sam probably does too, but he squirrels around so much that it's hard to tell. Max sttend FHE, but as you can see, he doesn't pay attention.

On one of the only days I felt well enough to go somewhere by myself, Zoe and I spent the day at Temple Square. We saw everything - the grounds, fountains, monuments, visitors centers, buildings, cafes, and distribution. It was a beautiful, cool day - temperature in the 70's, we wore Sunday dress, and it was just a special day. Here in the photo she came to see where her parents' wedding reception was. We went into the tabernacle amd sat on the benches and listened to the pin drop and marveled that the pioneers could make such a huge, wonderful building. Then we went straight to the Conference Center and even though I've been there many times, coming from the tab, we were just blown away with the size of the auditorium. We took the tour through the center, seeing the artwork and history. Zoe was amazed that there were trees and grass growing on the roof. I scared the tour guide when I suddenly slid off the wheelchair to just "lay down on this couch for a little while." We had a fun day.

Talk about the desert blossoming as a rose - these Church gardeners can almost make Salt Lake look like Victoria.

The parade float that consumed our lives for three weeks. Rob did most of the work and suffered most of the pain, but Zoe got the glamor:

Putting Zoe on the float was just a ploy to coax her parents into letting her stay longer - and it worked! Zoe was here from Snowbird to the 24th of July, a full seven weeks, but she was off on a plane home to mom and dad by six AM the next morning.

Now that they've found an answer to my falling down/passing out problems, I hope to be up and doing more with the grandkids again. I need to hurry - there's a whole bunch of birthday overnights coming up!

FOR A PRINCESS IS A DELICATE THING

I was trying to get caught up on my pic- tures - there are so many because I have so many kids running around. But this series from the Mother's Day picnic are the ones that jumped out at me. This is our pretty princess, Morgan, and these photos show how she gets her super-princess power to carry out her very busy days: gnawing on red meat...all she can get.















Soon the delicate child is hanging from the rafters, letting out Tarzan yells and concocting wild stunts with her brother.















However, they don't always work out as planned.

MY HERO

I don't know how many of you know that I am married to Superman. You may think that you have found Mr Right and he may be Mr-Right-Enough-For-You, but I have the winner.

Not only has he had to put up with me for the last 33 years, but the last year. When I fell apart because kids were moving away. When I kept going to visit them. When I got sick in August and haven't gotten better yet. When I plan big plans and then he has to carry them out because I'm sick. When I make him come listen to every little detail of some stupid thing I'm doing because he's the only one I ever see. When he lets me complain about the same pain or symptom, big or small, that he's heard me complain about over and over and over.

He treats me as if I'm the most special person in the world - not sick, not fat, not silly, and makes my dinner and does the laundry as if he looked forward to doing them. We eat dinner together every day, in spite of his busy Bishop schedule.

We love to be together and to talk together. Our favorite vacations are still on the road together, hours a day, driving - whether in Yellowstone or Cornwall - it's the sharing that makes it fun. Without his unfailing love and unselfishness, my life would have been so different and so awful! I only hope to pay it all back some day. I love you, Robert!

HOW LOVELY WAS MY APRIL

Spring is my favorite season. Robert prefers the colors and crispness of fall, but I love the new colors, the blossoms, the emerging life and unpredictable weather. I love having a sunny 68 degree day, followed by snow that weighs down the daffodils all morning and melts by dinnertime. Five days of rain is a wonderful thing - I love umbrellas and the sound of the drops on the pavement. And most of all, that brilliant blue, blue sky that stands as a backdrop to the white and pink blossoms, the new-green tender leaves, and the magnificent snowy Wasatch range.

I spent the first half of April in Ohio, and they had a beautiful spring, too. More blossomy trees and green everywhere. The bluest sky I have seen in Columbus before, and more days of sun than rain. Allison and Chris' home is in a small rural area with large green, grassy yards and lots of trees. Their own yard is filled with these beautiful white blossomed ones. Their front yard has a natural depression that fills with water each spring and a family of ducks make their home there.
I went back to visit and to be with Zoe over her Spring Break, while the rest of the family was in school and at work. Jimmy took a couple of days off of school to be home with me, too, plus the weekends. And I came prepared! These kids - especially Jimmy - love to make crafts. So I stocked up on Easter and spring themed supplies and we had one project every day.


One of the first ones was these shirts. I had the pieces from another project, so I just bought the T-shirts and let them glue them on, knowing the shirts would be a one-time thing. But Jimmy loved his so much and was concerned that the glue wasn't holding the pieces on, that I spent hours over several nights hand stitching every little piece on the shirts. And just let me tell you how hard it is to get a needle through felt that has been completely hardened by dried glue! Anyway, by the time I got them finished, the day before Easter, Jimmy had figured out that this was a shirt with a BUNNY on it, and if he ever wore it outside the house someone would probably beat him up! I had to insist he wear it long enough for me to take the photo. As you can tell by his snobby French expression, he is letting me know, "You can make me wear it, Grandma, but you can never make me like it!"

But we did lots of fun things. We stitched and decorated felt bags that they used for their Easter baskets. We made little carrot and bunny cars. We made foam Easter houses. We blew out eggs and dyed them and then made


them into egg animals. Plus animal magnets for the fridge and picture frames with Australian animals. Because one day, Zoe and I are going to go to Australia and go to Steve Irwin's zoo and hold a koala. We have it planned.

One of the first nights I was there, Allison and Chris went out, leaving me to watch the kids. I ordered in pizza and told them we were going to have a movie night. They immediately went over to the 'kids' section of their DVD collection, which are all animated movies and I told them no. We were going to watch a 'Family' movie. This immediately had them both howling and protesting, with Zoe on the floor. I very calmly said that there were movies that were in between kids and grown-ups and we were going to watch a family movie. I went through the shelves and picked "Hatari". Zoe continued to throw her tantrum on the floor, right up till the pizza arrived, which surprised me, because she has watched some of it with me before and liked it. Jimmy agreed to watch it after I described all of the animals that are in it - giraffes and elephants and monkeys and even a rocket - and it opens right up before the credits with an exciting rhino chase. But they were into the movie almost instantly and even though it is almost 3 hours long and went way past their bedtime, by the climax when the three baby elephants are chasing the girl all around the town, through stores and hotels, Jimmy came right up off his seat and said, "Did they make a video game of this movie?"

You would think after this success I would have had an easier experience the second I proposed a family movie, but no. This time, Jimmy had the tantrum when Zoe and I picked "The Court Jester". But, again, he was right into it and the rest of the week went around trying to say, "the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle." The last day Zoe and I were alone we watched the muscial "My Sister Eileen". She loved it. She got up and tried to do some of the dances along with the show. During her bath later she sang the songs at full volume. But I know the next time I suggest a 'Family' movie I'll get the same protests. Why are kids so stubborn?

The night before I was to leave Zoe was very upset. Allison had gone in to put Jimmy to bed and I went in with Zoe. Jimmy could hear Zoe crying and asked why. Allison said that Zoe was sad that grandma was going home because she would miss her. Jimmy said, "I'll miss grandma, too. Am I sad?" And then he started to cry. She calmed him down and I went in and kissed him goodnight and he was fine. But Zoe would not be settled. She continued to cry and got more out of control as the hour went on. After about 30 minutes, Jimmy got out of bed and asked his dad what was wrong with Zoe. Chris said that Zoe was just sad. Jimmy said, "Well, I'm sad, too. Tell Zoe to shut up!" Jimmy can miss me, but there's a limit. Zoe's been fine since I left. We're both looking forward to her coming this summer.

When I got home, a few days after Easter, I thought it was time to take down the Christmas decorations. Well, I had thought it was time since the end of February, but I've been sick and have had no one to help. And, of course, I just mean the 55 or so nativities that actually come down. The tree went away at the end of February. Robert had cleaned the living room carpet so nicely while I was gone and cleaned out the den, so the boxes were easily accessible. He brought boxes up and down from the basement all day and I got everything packed up and stowed by the late afternoon. It is much easier to put them away than to set them out!

And then, the last accomplishment of April - Rob's graduation from BYU with his MBA!! This is such a wonderful achievement for him and for Erin. The hard work and sacrifice they have each had to put in to this degree is amazing. I am so proud of them. I know all the best will come out of it and our prayers for them are constant. Way to go!!!!!!

EASTER IN OHIO

SPRINGTIME FOR DUCKIES IN OHIO

Well, I'm here in Columbus enjoying the beautiful 60' days followed by the snow squalls, so you know it's spring! Water has filled the little ditch in front of Allison and Chris' home and their annual spring ducks have returned. The neighbors say they always come back to that spot. The kids have had a fun time feeding them bits of bread and getting use to having them around.

Zoe and Jimmy and I have been making all kinds of Easter crafts and decorations. Plus playing games, snuggling up together and watching movies. We've had a very fun time. They are
very good about watching the clock for 6:00am before climbing in bed with me!

Allison invited me to sing with her ward choir for the Easter program and we had a rehearsal Saturday. She's got a great arrangement of Easter hymns and really got the group together. By the end of the hour she had really made a difference in her choir. We're going to practice again next Saturday before Easter.

After Conference on Sunday we drove over to see
Ben and Amanda's new house. We only left 10

minutes early because their old apartment was just a couple of miles away and they are still in the same ward. I forgot that being in the same ward doesn't mean a couple of miles here and we were 20 minutes late! But their home is beautiful and they have done so much lovely work on it. I wasn't sure we were going to get Jim to leave - he has such a crush on Ben.

Allison is still in a lot of pain, but everything is getting done and life is rolling on. I'll be here one more week.

IT'S SPRING! TIME TO TURN OVER A NEW...

I know you all thought that I would never update my blog, but seriously, the last ten weeks have been a steady, boring, long, dark spell, centered totally around my bed and my bathroom, interrupted only by the fun weekend spent with those cheery fellows from Neerings (and I wrote about that!) so you haven't missed a thing. But now, I have had three days in a row where I have been out of bed, dressed, and today I actually drove myself to the doctor and walked -no wheelchair - into his office. So, three cheers for me!


I have spent most of this week scanning photos and organizing photos and backing up photos and... well you get the idea. It started with a simple project of lining up photos of my sister Dawn from her childhood to the present so I could put them into ecards and drag out her 50th birthday as long as possible. I think I've succeeded in helping her remember (every single day for a week) that it's coming this Sunday.

And that project led to finding all of the current photos of the grandkids and making sure I had scanned all of those before I put them into their frames. By the way, all of the new photos from Christmas are in their frames now and need to be displayed, but the Nativities are all still up from Christmas because I've been kinda bed-bound. If anyone wants to come and help me wrap up about 600 little pieces, I'd appreciate it.


And that project led into making sure I had a good sampling of photos scanned and printed for my Grandma Brag Book that I carry in my purse. After printing all the studio shots, I went looking for some of the more candid cousin shots. I love to see the kids play together. And that's what most of these pictures are here. If this let me post more than 5 photos at a time, I'd have so many cute cousin pictures. Maybe now that my photos are in better shape, I'll just post favorites whenever, even though they're not current.

So now that I am feeling well I hope to start getting out and seeing people again and going places again and, well, just being different. And after the last 10 weeks, anything different has got to be good.

Aren't they all cute? I know Max and Noah aren't here, but they're on my facebook page.